Tempo Thursdays

100 Days of Real Food blog (wicked cool), World Championships start tonight with the Women's Marathon!, Bolt wants to be a legend (he isn't already?), start lists for Daegu, women's 10K preview, a day in the life of Meb, and see the video above on Ryan Hall pre-Boston.

Thursday, August 25 - 6 miles (1 up, 3 mile tempo, 1 mile easy, 1 mile tempo). Important workout for me in my mind to see where I was at speedwise and to help with confidence. Met up with Pat and Crystal at the Village Circle Loop pretty late at night on a pretty nice evening. A little still for my tastes, but the temps were pretty nice. Quick warmup, dynamic stretching, then laid out strategy for the workout (3 mile tempo, 3 minutes rest, 2 miles tempo, 2 minutes rest, 1 mile tempo). Crystal wanted to hit 6:20-6:29 range pace; I was thinking more 6:25's, and secretly hoping to hit 6:15's. Started the workout, and my Garmin battery died 0.18 miles into the tempo. Dropped a few f bombs, then decided it was best to sit on Crystal and hope for the best since I had no watch and didn't want to fall too far behind. Fast first mile, but felt really good and kept going. Fast second mile, but felt really good and kept going. Last mile, had to work a little harder, but found out we killed the last mile so was pretty happy. I deviated from the workout (wanted to save a little for Saturday's 5K), ran a mile, then caught up with Crystal to hit the 2nd part of her 2 mile (much harder effort), and the first part of her hard mile so I could get to my car since I was running uber late for dinner plans. Paced her through the second half of her mile in my car, which was much more fun than running. Pretty happy with this workout, and Crystal absolutely annihilated her end as well. Props to Pat for hitting his tempo. 3 mile splits: 6:15, 6:12, 6:05. 1 mile split: 5:50. Crystal hit 5:49 before that, then 5:41 for her mile - ridiculous.

Friday, August 26 - 4 miles. Bright and early for recovery run with Crystal on Old Faithful. Recovery run, but we ended up speeding up naturally. Analyzed the heck out of yesterday night's workout, then talked small strategy on tomorrow's race. Ran through 3 disgusting spider webs, and still picking out web remains from my hair as we speak. 35:43 total (2 mile splits - 18:09, 17:34 (including complete stoppage for running face first into a huge spider web))

Legs are tired but feel ok. Hoping I have some juice for tomorrow's race, and praying for cooler weather for tomorrow morning!